Hey Guys:

I trust everyone's Christmas and new years was fun, time well spent with family and loved ones, and nothing short of stressful and chaotic like mine was.

But, my parents were gracious enough and bought me a wide format scanner so i can scan art boards without cutting.  It's been fun, and now I'm going to start putting it to use.  Maybe even get back to posting something weekly.

Seeing as I still want to finish this current project, start trying storyboarding, and I've committed to a charity art project, I should have alot to post each week maybe even spread it out over the weeks.

Here's the 1st 8 pages of the second issue of my Empress of dreams project (still thinking of changing that name).  Uncut and scanned as one image, as it should be.  

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Hard to believe 2018 is almost over.  Since Christmas has officially started (before the end of November), its time to pick up a personal tradition of mine: drawing the "Rocking Reindeer" comp.  It started as an idea a long time ago as an album cover to a heavy metal compilation of Christmas song covers my friends and I were going to record.  Never happened of course, but I still liked the idea and every year feel compelled to redraw it again.

If you guys feel inspired, draw your own composition of classic Christmas characters re imagined as modern musicians: rappers, punk rockers, emo, whatever.  Post in response to this post.

Merry Christmas to all now go forth and rock!

Hey Guys:

Pretty sure everyone has heard about the passing of the great Stan Lee.  And I'm pretty sure there will be millions of tribute pieces posting for months even years to come.  Never the less, I felt the need to commemorate by drawing out my own composition.  This is also the first time I've actually fully colored anything I've drawn.  So I need help: does it work?  what needs to change?  Should I use different colors?  is the shading right?  Shine? etc.  I can use all the help I can get before posting this to FB.

Hi All:

Been in a funk lately, the new project is hitting snags and I have not been very consistent in working on it daily.  I was planning on posting the whole completed project once done, but since I'm way behind I've decided to post the first short issue so I can move onto the next short issue.

I set it up to have the opening spread establish the waterfall city, the main character moving there as a kid and the city as it is once he grew up and became a cop.  Odd numbered pages that follow are his memories of that first day and the even numbered pages are "life as usual" for him in adulthood.

List 3 things you like and 3 things you dislike.

Finished

Well, I put dialog to the whole issue.  Now I know why there's a 6 panel max limit on pages.  Also found I need to leave extra spacing for word bubbles too (progress).  

Let me know what you think, just remember the 1st rule of effective critiquing: for every 1 negative comment, there MUST be 1 positive comment.

Now onto to deciding on the next project.

Hi All:

So the last page is penciled and inked.  I'm thinking I should add dialog to this whole project.  If anybody objects speak now or forever hold your peace.  

Tried some new pens and white out tools, with varying levels of effectiveness that I had to correct in Photoshop.

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Hi all:

back from vacation and closing in on completing this project.

Deciding on the next project, wanting to up my game, may need help, but not sure yet.

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Hi All:

This one was rushed a little as I'm leaving tomorrow for a weeks visit with my family.  So no post next week.  

This one I tried to add my detail and renderings, also use different pen tips, like a 3-5 micron tip for the outline of people, cars etc.  Micron 2 for the permanent details within the outline: eyes, mouth ears, etc, then a 1 tip for the fluid details: creases in the skin, hair, teeth, nostrils, etc.  I don't know if I've reached a higher level of artistry by stressing over such details(what does a nostril actually look like) or if I've just gone insane.  Feels like insanity because the nostrils still don't look right to me.

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See you all in 2 weeks.

Hi all:

So trying to improve my inking with the tips provided by the pros I talked to at Comic Fest.  Definitely room for improvement.

But I press on.

Hi All:

Back from PHX Comic Fest.  Some ups and downs, but still grateful I went this year.

This page I finished before comic fest, along with a revision the big frame in the background.  First time doing a revision and got a crash course in Photoshop elements.  2-2 for today so far.

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Hi All:

Here's this week's page.  I will not be posting next weekend as I will be at the Phoenix Comic fest(formerly Comicon because San Diego claims it can have the only Comicon).  If I get the time and I'm not too worn out from the day, I will post pictures from the comicfest.

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So I was advised by a pro to ink with a brush.  A daunting idea to say the least but practically not viable as my apartment is all carpet, so to spill would mean extra charge for me when I move out.  But low and behold, micron manufactures pens with pain brush tips, and once again I found myself without an excuse to try it.  So this week's page was my first try inking with a brush pen.  The first is the raw as it shows on the page attempt.  The second is the retouched attempt through photoshop to smooth out the shaky lines and big globs of black from trying to keep the pen steady.  Still learning.

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I ordered a new lenovo desktop last Monday with Photoshop elements pre-installed.  So I'll be able to post more often, should be anyways.  What that means for the weekly posting remains to be seen.

Here's this week's finished page.

I'm still gaining speed and even experimenting with new techniques on how to draw anatomy, backgrounds, and I'm helping a friend with some work in his model shop.

Seems the more I take on, the better my time management skills get.  But it's only been a week so I could be getting ahead of myself.

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So i'm definitely getting faster.  Been experimenting with the creative process in the free time, will post about that later.

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Hi All:

This one is early because (apparently) I'm improving at setting up, plotting, penciling, and inking pages.  I'm thinking I either add more detail to the pages or keep moving up in productivity and crank out more than one page in a week.  Thoughts.

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Hi all:

This one didn't line up as well.  Always frustrating to see that the scanner resized one pass but not the other, so when matching them up, some details hit and others don't.  It's really annoying.

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Been thinking for awhile I should participate in art challenges.  So today I'm submitting my first one to Serkwerks for his "Take me to your leader Tuesday" challenge.  This one I did a small comp of the Martian Bovine from a previous one shot comic I did for my brother's birthday.  

Here's the link to the Serkwerks website if you all want to join in.

http://serkworks.com/

#TMTYLT

Hi all:

April Fools.

Finished this page earlier in the week, then worked on a comp for a friend, I'll post that later in the week or next week, depending on if he likes it or not.

post one thing you like and one thing you don't like.

So this week was busy, making progress on this project but still need more time to ink and detail.  So here's the first 3 pages with dialog added.